Monthly Archives: October 2011

Not only other experts writings in your area BUT also other, seemingly random perhaps, places you might find ideas. For me many times that is more important than sales books or articles – gaining new insight comes from the oddest places.

Need a couple examples? Here are a couple places I visit enough to have on my iGoogle page:

Share

Like this:

Check out the list of Top 10 Business Excuses salespeople use to NOT call customers. The important question is…. Which one do you use?

10 – I’ll get to that as soon as I finish insert task here.9 – I have a team meeting.8 – You scheduled me for training.7 – My forecast is due.6 – I’ve got to talk to insert your internal resource here before I call.5 – My cube mate asked for help.4 – I’m researching who to call.3 – Let me read these notes first.2 – Oh look an email.
and the #1 excuse for NOT using Money Hours for Customer Contact Time is…. but they asked me to doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo something when I talked with them just now!

Stop making excuses and start holding yourself accountable! Push yourself to make an effort for customer contact when you’re at your best AND you have the most luck reaching people.

Like this:

I’ll admit that isn’t how I ask the question in training classes BUT I would like you to start to think about this: Do I EVER ask my prospects or customers the WHEN behind their request?

Don’t get me wrong, one of the key buying points in telesales many times = responsiveness!

Responsiveness to:

requests for information

order processing

product delivery

etc.

I’m all about delivering value the prospect and customer needs; where I think telesalespeople miss the mark is NOT asking what level of responsiveness is needed every single time!

Here is my story of WHY that’s true:

Long long ago, in a sales land far far away…. a young salesperson (let’s call her Lynn) got a request from a prospect and because she didn’t have many customers yet, DROPPED everything and took care of their request immediately!

Then a horrible event occurred – Lynn won the deal AND got the order 2 days later.

Why is that a horrible event? Well it solidified in Lynn’s belief system that dropping everything is what made her successful. Because it was true… that one time.

As we move through time, Lynn kept earning business by dropping everything. Her customer’s praised her efforts on their behalf and she became VERY successful.

The problem became, now she had many customers and the timing began to slip. Some people were still very happy with her… others expressed dissatisfaction.. and some even expressed it by NOT being her customers anymore.

One day that customer from the beginning of the story called, of course Lynn dropped everything. GASP – 2 days later she didn’t have an order, a week went by and the customer wasn’t even returning her messages. Finally 4 weeks later she was able to talk with them – devastated because she believed she had lost their business even though she had dropped everything. Let’s listen in…

Lynn: Hi, I guess you decided to go with another vendor on this one…..

Customer: What are you talking about?

Lynn: We’ll I hadn’t heard from you, so I figure you decided that someone else was a better fit on this project…..

Customer: Um, no…

Lynn: Then what’s up?

Customer: The board meets the 1st Tuesday of the month, so I can’t do anything until after they vote on it. I called you right after the last meeting to work on their latest request. Today is the day after their next meeting and I’m calling to tell you they approved it.

What is needed in 5 minutes today (for a meeting or to satisfy a boss’s curiosity) – might be able to wait until tomorrow or another day. In the case of our story, the request could have waited WEEKS until the customer needed it for the next board meeting.

Understanding a prospect or customer’s responsiveness need is going to help you better manage your priorities – time – efforts. Plus you can make sure you exceed their expectations IF you know what they are.

Share

Like this:

Most salespeople I know ‘do, do, do‘ – do what ever a prospect or customer asks them to.

Ok I’ll stop myself from writing the Dr. Seuss Sales Post (… hmmmm). Let’s get back on track. I understand that as salespeople we want to prove we’re worth switching to, buying from, working with AND the proof can’t be told to someone – hence the ‘do, do, do‘ (and yes that does remind me of The Police – De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da).

Here is the contradiction – we need to do… BUT in the doing we might set ourselves up to be overwhelmed. If everytime anyone asks us to ‘do, do, do‘ without thought we:

drop everything

react

start without asking questions

act before we understand

handle the request

We are training the prospect or customer to expect that FOREVER.

Instead – train yourself to ‘ask, understand, do‘ every single time you receive a request.

Ask: Anytime someone gives you a ‘do, do, do‘ to do…beging by asking lots of questions – not for the sake of asking, rather for to – Understand

find out both their time frame for the request AND a must have time

investigate what happens next

delve into the why behind the request

dig deeper

Now (and only now) it’s time to Do. Yes, in the end we are going to DO… but only after we ASK and the UNDERSTAND. Once we understand you can choose what the action you’re going to take is. Even *gasp* manage the prospect or customer’s expectations.

There we are back at the beginning – it is after all, called Account Management for a reason!

Share

Like this:

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Email Subscription

Do you wish it was easier to keep UpYourTeleSales.com's Coaching Over Coffee in front of you? Click here to subscribe to the blog and receive our crazy off-kilter view on TeleSales right in your inbox. Cheers, Lynn